It started when a young couple were hiking in Banff. They set up a picture of themselves with Lake Louise in the background, set the timer of the camera, and scurried back to their poses. A nosy little squirrel, curious about the clicking of the camera's timing mechanism, came closer to the camera. Then, just before the picture snapped, he poked his head right up, the camera auto-focused on him, and snapped the picture! He crashed the picture!

The young couple got quite a laugh over it, and the picture is very cute. They sent the picture to the National Geographic web site, the picture of "Nuts" the squirrel got popular, the picture escaped into the viral internet community, and people began inserting the squirrel into other pictures and posting them on the internet.

You can read about it on the National Geographic blog, where you can also see some pictures of the squirrel that people have made. There is also a nice collection on mashable.com (click here to link). And if you really want to get into Crasher Squirrel pics, you can just go to Flickr, search for "crasher squirrel", set the photostream to slideshow, and laugh yourself silly.

Here is the original photo that the squirrel crashed:

There are many funny crasher squirrel pictures out there, but here are three that I really liked:

I think Crasher Squirrel needs to learn to knit, don't you? Or possibly spin on a spindle?

Hahahahahahahahahaha I have not laughed so much in a looooong time, as I did when I opened my recent shipment of new books from Interweave Press. There is a really really funny book of knitting cartoons and jokes from Franklin Habit, and you have just GOT to look at it. It makes a great gift for any knitter you know! And it really makes you laugh. And at only $12.95, it packs a lot of humor bang for the buck!

We also got Boutique Knits by Laura Irwin, a great new collection of knitted accessories with a decidedly 1920's Flapper Girl twist.... very unusual and very fun! It's not your grandma's hats and gloves..... well maybe it is, but they are very coooooool!

And and and .... the Interweave Knits Magazing Holiday Gift issue arrived at Unique One today too! Wooohoooo! Get those needles clicking, you know what to do! And the yarn sale is on through Sunday! Wow!
The best thing is, Interweave has a contest based on Franklin Habit's book, It Itches! You have to count how many sheep appear in odd nooks and crannies through the issue, send in your answers to some questions, and get a chance to win an autographed copy of the book! There is also a Caption Contest over on Knitting Daily... make sure to enter!

Got some time to waste? I found this picture of a cotton shawl I crocheted a few years ago and thought it might make a fun jigsaw puzzle. Just click the arrow button to go to JigZone and solve the puzzle :)

Are you a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan? I am. I have been sad not to be able to enjoy the antics of Mike Nelson, Tom Servo, Crow, Gypsy and Cambot ever since the show was cancelled. Their hilarious commentary during Really Bad Movies was always guaranteed to make me laugh!

BUT

Now I can get that warm yet slightly unsettling feeling anytime, due to the miracle of mp3! Just go to Rifftrax and you can buy their robotic, inane banter via download, and play it along with your favorite movies and laugh yourself silly as much as you want! I love it!

Not a MST3K fan? Need more information? Go HERE. Or just read the lyrics from the MST3K Theme Song. (But its better if you hear it sung.)

From the web site:
"Martians, upset that their children have become obsessed with TV shows from Earth which extoll the virtues of Santa Claus, start an expedition to Earth to kidnap the one and only Santa. While on Earth, they kidnap two lively children that lead the group of Martians to the North Pole and Santa. The Martians then take Santa and the two children back to Mars with them. Voldar, a particularly grumpy Martian, attempts to do away with the children and Santa before they get to Mars, but their leader Lomas stops him. When they arrive on Mars, Santa, with the help of the two Earth children and a rather simple-minded Martian lackey, overcomes the Martians by bringing fun, happiness and Christmas cheer to the children of Mars."

About a year ago I posted about a cute little Christmas animation I found on the internet.... I wanted to find another cute Christmas animation to share with you this year, but no luck.... so I am re-running this post from last year. "Ornaments" is just as cute this year as it was last year! Maybe you missed it last year or maybe you don't remember it... Enjoy!

There's a great little Christmas animation out there -- it's called "Ornaments" and it features a very cute Santa Claus ornament who really wants to get from the Christmas tree where he is hanging, to the coffee table where cookies have been put out for Santa. It's action-packed, fun, suspenseful and clever, and a wonderful amusement for children and adults alike. I love it. I highly recommend you download it, watch it, and share it with your friends. Here's the link:

Pretend your life has been made into a movie... and Fate is writing the soundtrack for it. Fate, apparently, looks a lot like your iTunes music library on shuffle. :D

Directions:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc) 2. Put it on shuffle 3. Press play 4. For every question, type the song that’s playing 5. When you go to a new question, press the next button 6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool..

Right. Well they're all pretty unrelated to the life scene, with the possible exception of Life's Okay and Birth of a Child, heh heh. Interestingly enough, the song choices themselves are not always bad... just placed inappropriately. For example, the Bjork song would have been perfect for Birth of a Child....the John Mayer song for Breaking Up... "As Time Goes By" for End Credits....

I considered doing it repeatedly until I got the "right" song for each number, or just going through my iTunes library and manually picking them, despite rule #6 which clearly states NOT TO. But... if it was to be about Fate, then I had to accept it. :)

Surprised that my playlist encompasses such a variety, from Of Montreal to Binnie Hale to Super Furry Animals to Little Walter? Then you don't know me that well. ;) And besides my iTunes library has over 3000 items in it..... so far. :D

The project has been painstakingly completed by more than 300 contributors, including a group of gay men knitting in Brighton, and a 12-year-old boy in Sussex, who spent six months making the pond and waterfall.

Ms Bolsover, 46, of Dorking, Surrey, estimates her team made 4million individual stitches, knitting together 80km (50 miles) of wool.

'I'm one of the world's worst knitters so it has been a strange project for me,' she admitted.

And the 4.5m by 3m (15ft by 10ft) garden, on display in Exeter, Devon, is not finished yet.

'Anyone can come along and add to it as long as what they do is hand-knitted,' she said.

I totally ripped this off from a very cool and funny site called Savage Chickens. And you totally have to go check them out, it's worth the trip. Guaranteed to make you smile! (Well, only if you think chickens are kind of funny.)